Understanding Film Terms

Below are some key terms and explanations (with examples) of key film concepts and terms.  

The Filmic Image

• Mise-en-scene: the entirety of the image on the screen. More simply: what the viewer sees. 

• Frame: the imaginary border of the film. Think about it like a picture frame. 

• Shot: a single image of film. Can be any length, but must be unedited. 

• Scene: a series of shots which make up part of a narrative.  

Shot Lengths and Sizes

• Establishing shot: The largest shot; establishes an area the size of a town or campus.

• Long shot: A large shot which covers a space like a street or a room.

• Medium shot: A shot which captures characters from the knees or wait up. Most commonly used shot in American cinema. 

• Close shot: A shot which focuses on a character's face or a specific object. 

• Extreme Close-up: A shot which focuses on a small portion of a character's face/body or a specific object.  

Camera Angles

• High Angle: a shot from above the subject which looks down. 

• Low Angle: a shot from below the subject which looks up. 

• Sideways tilts: shots which are off-center.  

Camera Movements

• Pan shot: a shot which moves left-to-right or up-and-down on a stable axis. 

• Tracking shot: a shot which travels forward or backward.

• Zoom: camera zooms in or out on a subject.  

Editing

• Narrative editing: standard storytelling 

• Montage: clips which are meant to stand in for a story  

Cuts

• Cross-cut: standard cut from shot to shot. 

• Fade: shot fades into black or fades from black. 

• Iris: shot fades into or out of a specific object on the screen. 

• Dissolve: shot fades into the next shot; images are transposed or juxtaposed.  

Focus

• Deep: everything in the frame is in focus. 

• Soft: one specific object or subject on the screen is in focus. 

 Sound

• Narration: off-camera speech designed to give context to the images. 

• Dialogue: on or off-camera spoken exchange between characters. 

• Monologue: on or off-camera speech acts performed by a single character. 

• Music: can be diegetic (characters can hear the sound) or non-diegetic (characters can not hear the sound). 

• Effects: any sounds which are not spoken or musical; similar to music, can be diegetic or non-diegetic.